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Focuses on integrating the theory and practice of organizational transformation through the metaphors of chaos theory and self‐organization. Case study data were collected through in‐depth interviews of three practitioner/theorists ‐ Peter Senge, William Torbert and Ellen Wingard ‐ all of whom have formulated theories of organizational change which they use as practitioners for generating transformations in organizations. The interviews suggest that all three of them utilize the logic of their (very different) theories to rationally set up the conditions for organizational change, but that the transformations they describe were sparked not through rational efforts but, in their words, through “grace”, “magic”, and “a miracle”. The new sciences of chaos and self‐organization provide a number of useful metaphors that can help us understand these non‐linear events. Describes the case studies in some depth and then identifies commonalities across the interventions in terms of a three‐phase model of dynamic order, thresholds at the edge of logic, and the self‐organized emergence of new order. Uses metaphors from new science to explain this process, aiming to identify a “chaotic logic” that links rational theory and intuitive practice in transformations of groups and organizations.

Bill, you've been serving as the chief operating officer for the Boston College MBA program for the past six years. You've also written about a quality you associate with the greatest leaders that you call “executive mind.” How do you define this kind of thinking?

There are several stage‐based models of organisational development (OD) that provide a systematic overview of the developmental potential of organisations. This paper compares four such models – Ken Wilber's integral theory, the spiral dynamics model of Don Beck and Chris Cowan, Richard Barrett's corporate transformation model, and William Torbert's action inquiry model – with the aim of presenting an integrated account of the stages of OD.

Integral theory is used as the basis for considering the theoretical scope of these other models of OD. The integral framework is specifically designed to recognise the valid insights of other models of organisational change and, as such, is well suited for situating those insights in a comprehensive and coherent approach for mapping the developmental paths of organisations. The models considered represent some of the more innovative OD approaches.

From the comparative analysis an integral model for OD is described. The description includes a new definition of OD which is based on integral theory's core developmental principles.

The proposed framework provides a means for assessing the scope and specificity of other approaches to OD. It also provides criteria for distinguishing between those approaches that are concerned with incremental or continuous change and those that focus on transformative development.

The comparative analysis and resulting framework will assist practitioners and consultants in the OD field in developing a better understanding of the relationships between various stage‐based approaches to OD.

This paper provides a comprehensive framework that can assist in comparing and situating the many approaches to OD that are currently available.

The purpose of this paper is to address how adult development (AD) theories can contribute to quality improvement (QI).

A theoretical analysis and discussion on how personal development empirical findings can relate to QI and Deming’s four improvement knowledge domains.

AD research shows that professionals have qualitatively diverse ways of meaning-making and ways to approach possibilities in improvement efforts. Therefore, professionals with more complex meaning-making capacities are needed to create successful transformational changes and learning, with the recognition that system knowledge is a developmental capacity.

In QI and improvement science there is an assumption that professionals have the skills and competence needed for improvement efforts, but AD theories show that this is not always the case, which suggests a need for facilitating improvement initiatives, so that everyone can contribute based on their capacity.

This study illustrates that some competences in QI efforts are a developmental challenge to professionals, and should be considered in practice and research.

Today, there is a global need for more effective leaders. The purpose of this paper is to present a model of human development which covers the psychological, physiological, and sociological dimensions of leadership.

The authors review three research studies in which they have investigated the relationships between consciousness, psycho‐physiological integration, and leadership performance using physiological measures, psychological tests, and self‐reports.

These studies support the model that leadership ability is closely related to psycho‐physiological refinement – the authors found that higher integration of the electrical brain activity, more mature moral reasoning, and more frequent peak experiences are found in top performers compared to average performers.

The high frequency of peak experiences among top performers reveals the importance of such gratifying inner experiences for the business community.

The research suggests that practical methods for psycho‐physiological refinement – such as the widely researched Transcendental Meditation technique – can be useful in developing more effective leadership. The brain integration scale presented here may be a reliable objective instrument for assessing an individual's leadership and performance capacity.

A unique contribution of the authors' research is to recognize that integrity – an essential requisite for leadership – has a physiological counterpart in the integration seen in the functioning of the brain through electroencephalography.

Over the past two decades there has been a growing recognition of the need to develop integrative approaches to understanding and explaining organisational change. One of the barriers to achieving this has been the lack of an integrative theoretical framework that can cope with the multiple demands of researching and explaining organisational change across diverse domains. To meet this challenge a holonomic framework for the study of organisational change is proposed. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the suitability of the holon construct as the basis for a multilevel and multi‐paradigm framework for the study of organisational change.

Arthur Koestler's holon construct and the developmental principles of Ken Wilber's AQAL framework are used as foundations for developing the framework. To this end theory building techniques are used to describe how the holon construct can accommodate the essential explanatory characteristics of ten paradigms commonly used in organisational studies.

The holonomic framework described here possesses significant integrative capacity by demonstrating its ability to incorporate multiple concepts from a diversity of organisational fields.

It has the potential to contribute significantly to the integrative investigation of change across many levels and domains of organisational activity.

No matter what the organization's activity, or country, the better the decisions of its managers and leaders, the more likely that the organization will thrive.